The unexpected resignation plunges Angela Merkel's conservative party deeper into crisis as it struggles to agree on its future political direction.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s designated successor unexpectedly threw in the towel Monday, plunging her conservative party into deeper crisis as it struggles to agree on its future political direction after losing votes to the far right.
The vote in Thuringia broke what is widely regarded as a taboo in postwar German politics around cooperating with extremist parties.“The AfD stands against everything we as the CDU represent,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told reporters Monday in Berlin. “Any convergence with AfD weakens the CDU.” “If it’s up to me, it won’t have any effect on the stability of the grand coalition,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said after announcing her planned withdrawal.But leading figures in Merkel’s party expressed concerns about fallout from the announcement.
Among the names currently being bandied around as future CDU party leaders are Health Minister Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz, who were beaten to the leadership by Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018. Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, is also being mentioned as a possible contender.
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin that she stood by her decision not to run for a fifth term in 2021, despite the latest development.
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